Xerox this week announced a new addition to its DocuShare family of content and document management products. With DocuShare Express, small to medium-sized businesses can get a solid, reasonably priced system to manage information and content, all while integrating easily with existing Xerox hardware using the new Extensible Interface Platform (EIP) connector.

At the highest level, DocuShare Express works like a Web-based electronic filing cabinet. It has the capacity to store multiple types of content, ranging from typical Microsoft Office files and scanned documents, to content from blogs, wikis, and other sources. Once the documentation is in the system, it can be securely shared with appropriate team members as needed.

Full-featured content and document management solutions have historically been the domain of complex and expensive systems, putting them out of reach to all but the largest companies. Fortunately, Xerox is taking a populist approach here -- DocuShare Express starts at less than $2,000, making it very accessible.

The real benefits of document management systems quickly become apparent in organizations with lots of paper files or significant regulatory concerns. DocuShare Express, using the EIP connector which will be available in September, allows users to scan documents using existing Xerox equipment, load them right into the system, and make them available for viewing searching and editing.

As the "express" name implies, DocuShare Express contains only a subset of the features of Xerox's full enterprise content management system offerings. But for many small businesses, it's likely to be just the right fit: not too much solution for the problem and certainly plenty of bang for the buck.

Check the Xerox Web site for additional information on DocuShare Express and other items in the DocuShare product line.